1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom strobe device having an illumination angle varying mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
A zoom strobe device in which an illumination angle varies in accordance with the focal length of a zooming lens is widely used in a zoom lens camera and particularly in a compact camera having a zoom photographing lens system and a separate zoom finder system. In such a zoom strobe device, at least one of a light emitting tube, reflection shade, and condenser lens constitutes an illumination angle varying member which moves in the optical axis direction to change the illumination angle. The illumination angle varying member is actuated by a cam mechanism.
In a conventional zoom strobe device, since an associated pin provided on the illumination angle varying member is directly engaged in a cam groove of a cam member provided in a cam mechanism, the cam groove must have a large inclination angle in order to cause a relatively large displacement of the illumination angle varying member based upon a small displacement of the cam member. However, the large inclination angle of the cam groove may make it impossible to actuate the cam member. This is the reason that the cam member in a conventional zoom strobe device has a long cam groove having a small inclination angle, resulting in an increased displacement of the cam member. This becomes more serious particularly in a camera having a macro function at a TELE extremity in which the zoom lens moves from the TELE extremity to a macro-photographing position, since a relatively large displacement (advance) of the illumination angle varying member must be caused by a short cam groove to decrease the intensity of the strobe light at the macro-photographing position.